Part of the Global Plot to Expose Moonbats, conspiracy nuts, and anti-Semites, especially the Jewish anti-Semitic variety.
The leftwing Neo-Nazi web magazine Counterpunch has described Plaut thus: "One of the most pernicious writers is Steven Plaut, a man who could be thought of as Israel's Daniel Pipes."

Friday, January 07, 2011

Dishonest Abe

1. Good news is suddenly breaking out all over. Israel, it turnsout, has enough natural gas (and possibly some oil underneath it) thatit could get an invitation to join OPEC. And now the Knesset for thefirst time in Israel's history is taking serious action against theseditious leftist anti-Zionist fifth column organizations operating inIsrael with foreign funding:http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/141600MK: Be Very Afraid, Fifth ColumnistsShevat 2, 5771, 07 January 11 11:07by Gil Ronen(Israelnationalnews.com)MK Danny Danon told Arutz Sheva that he will be the Knesset memberheading the committee of inquiry into ultra-leftist groups' sources offunding that the Israeli parliament voted to establish.

Danon said that he "recommends to [Peace Now Director] YarivOppenheimer and the other directors of the NGOs that are a fifthcolumn within Israel to start sprucing up their CVs, because soon theywill be unemployed."

Among the organizations and persons Danon intends to invite to thecommittee, he lists:

• B'tselem - director, Jessica Montel• The Center for Defense of the Individual - director, Dalia Kirstein• Yesh Din - director, Roi Maor• Ir Amim - director, Yehudit Oppenheimer• The Public Committee against Torture in Israel - director, Yishai Blanc• Adallah - director, Mahmoud Yazbek• Peace Now - director, Yariv Oppenheimer• Gisha - director, Kenneth Mann• Association for Civil Rights ion Israel - President, Sami Michael• Mousawa - Anwar Jamal, Tariq Bashir, Jafer Farah• as well as: Breaking the Silence, Machsom Watch, The IsraeliCommittee against Home Demolitions and the Center for AlternativeInformation.Danon said that "it is time to find our the sources of the monies forthese groups that act without letup against the state of Israel." Headded: "We will try to find out who are the ones who arrange the riotsat the Bil'in checkpoint, who funded the legal motions in the matterof Highway 443. We will reveal the bodies that roam the Galilee andpurchase private lands with Saudi money. The leftists seem afraid andthey must have a reason for fearing this committee."

The committee does not have powers of subpoena and is no differentfrom other Knesset committees as far as its powers. Danon isoptimistic, however: "I hope we can stop these groups, which received40 million shekels from the European Union in the last five yearsalone... We will try to discover the truth and in the end we willrecommend changes in legislation as well."

***

Among those soiling their underwear over the new Knesset initiativeare J Street and the New Israel Fund. On the very same day that aRabbi was being dragged off for interrogation because the thoughtpolice disliked an opinion he had expressed, an anti-democraticincident that was not denounced by a single leftist in Israel, thesame leftists are sobbing in unison about "McCarthyism" and aboutthreats from the government against freedom of speech:http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/leftist-groups-witch-hunt-against-us-will-destroy-democracy-in-israel-1.335405Notice the headline: Leftist groups: 'Witch hunt' against us willdestroy democracy in Israel

These of course are the very same leftist groups that have beenstriving to suppress freedom of speech and who have been demandingthat everyone whose opinions in Israel they dislike be indicted for"incitement" and "racism."

In a bit of comic irony, the very same "Avrum" has an Op-Ed in Haaretztoday demanding that all enlightened Israelis should strive tomaximize the intermarriage rate between Israeli Jews and non-Jews fromall over the world. I am not joking. See it for yourself here:http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/marrying-the-dalai-lama-1.335684 Note how he thinks that his daughter marrying the Dalai Lama, Iguess cause "Avram" thinks the Lama is the epitome of Jewish values,is far better than allowing her to marry an Israeli Jewish rightist.

Now the "Avrum" is the son of the great parliamentarian and cabinetminister during Israel's early decades, Joseph Burg.

I have had occasion to comment on the "Avrum" in the past, and I thinkthe time is apt to repost some of these materials:

Thursday, February 26, 2009Avraham Burg and the Post-Zionist Wrecking of the Pri Hagalil CompanyAvraham Burg and the Post-Zionist Wrecking of the Pri HagalilEnterpriseBy Steven Plaut

Avraham Burg is without a question one of the worst Israelis in the worldand also a despicable person. A one-time Knesset Member from the LaborParty and a speaker of the Knesset, and later Chairman of the JewishAgency, Burg is openly seeking to put an end to Israel's existence as aJewish state. He is a leader in the "Post-Zionist" movement ofultra-leftists, Israelis and ex-Israelis seeking Israel's annihilation.But now he is also up to his ears in financial scandal. It turns out heis one of the central figures involved in the collapse of the Pri Hagalilcompany, a collapse that has dominated the economic news in recent weeksin Israel.Let's back up a little.Avraham "Avrum" Burg has been a far-leftist for decades. He is the son ofthe great Joseph Burg, a Holocaust survivor and one of Israel's founders.Father Burg was a leader of the National Religious Party and sat inIsraeli cabinets for so many years that there were many jokes about himhaving sat in a cabinet with Pharaoh. Mother Burg had grown up in Hebronand survived the 1929 Arab pogroms against Jews there.Junior Avraham had been a leader in "Peace Now," and supposedly wasstanding near the favorite martyr saint of the Israeli Left, EmilGrunsweig, when the latter was killed by a grenade tossed at thedemonstrators by a rightist. (The perp, by the way, is NOT on the list ofpeople Olmert wants to release as part of the general release ofterrorists.) Avraham is religious, sort of, showing his ambivalence aboutthat by wearing a yarmulke smaller than many postage stamps. In recentyears he has been making headlines for his demands that Israel stop beinga Jewish state, that the Law of Return for Jews be revoked, and thatJewish symbols of the state be junked. He is a founder of the newanti-Israel lobby in the US, "J Street." He has lived in recent years inFrance. His current "thinking" can be read here:http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/868385.htmlAs speaker of the Knesset, "Avrum" defied Israeli law and illegally wentto speak before the PLO's "parliament" in Ramallah in 2002.Since then he has morphed into one of Israel's most extremist"Post-Zionists" (http://www.arabworldbooks.com/arab/avraham.htm ). Hedenounces Zionism in the anti-Israel Guardian(http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,1042071,00.html ). Theanti-Semite Pat Buchanan has applauded him(http://goliath.ecnext.com/comsite5/bin/pdinventory.pl?pdlanding=1&referid=2750&item_id=0199-1403773.He has denounced Israel as an evil entity(http://www.haaretz.com/GA/pages/ShArtGA.jhtml?itemNo=360539 ). Thejournal Azure reports(http://azure.org.il/magazine/magazine.asp?id=117&search_text= ) that Burg"declared the late Yeshayahu Leibowitz (of 'Judeo-Nazis' fame) to be his'moral compass.'" Burg's advisers Haim Ben-Shachar and Arik Carmon havedeveloped a plan whereby the Zionist movement would drop its focus onJewish immigration and concern itself with distributing "pluralistic"Jewish material over the Internet. He teamed up with Yossi Beilin topromote the latter's "Geneva Misunderstandings" to dismember Israel(http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=36&x_article=599 ).Burg demands that Israel desist altogether from defining itself as a"Jewish state". His take on suicide bombers? "Having ceased to careabout the children of the Palestinians, [Israel] should not be surprisedwhen they come full of hatred and blow themselves up in the centers ofIsraeli escapism."He has published an anti-Israel 'book', one that ruminates about Israeland Zionism, compares Israel and Germany, harshly criticizes Eichmann'shanging by Israel, reflects on Judaism in the age of globalization andremembers his father's house. In 2007 the media reported that Burg juniorhad left Israel altogether to do "business" in France. We will see in aminute what sort of "business."Meanwhile, back to Pri Hagalil. It is a fruit canning and processingcompany located in the impoverished Israeli "development town" of Hatzor,not far from Kiryat Shmona, close enough to be on the receiving end ofmany a Hezbollah rocket. It is the main employer in the town, and it isbroke.The background to this is that the company was once one of so manymismanaged enterprises owned by Israel's Histadrut Trade Union Federation.The Histadrut is essentially Israel's leading organized crime family. PriHagalil had been managed by the Histadrut's own industrial holding companyKoor, before the latter was privatized. Pri Hagalil was sold by Koor inthe 1990s to two dubious characters, an Israeli business man named AvivAlgor, and a British investor named Ian Davis. I say they are dubious,but I mean they are crooks. A month ago the two were convicted of seriousfraud in a separate affair involving the Mediterranean Pipes Company(Maariv Feb 25) and had other previous fraud convictions (seehttp://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1131043721728&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull).The two crooks had purchased Pro Hagalil and at the same time purchasedthe "Vita" company, which makes soups and other processed foods, andmerged it with Pri Hagalil to make a new company. The merged enterprisewas owned by "Kedem," their own holding company, which also bought upother failing Israeli companies from different industries.At that point they struck a deal with .. (drumroll) . our own Avrum Burg!He came in as a partner in their corporation and was appointed chairman ofthe board of directors of Pri Hagalil. The company kept losing money (ifyou are interested and read Hebrew, you can check its books out athttp://maya.tase.co.il/bursa/CompanyDetails.asp?CompanyCd=157&company_group=3000).It went deeper into debt, borrowing from the banks and others. And tomake matters more confusing, the assets of Pri Hagalil were pledged ascollateral not only for the factory's own debts but also for the debts ofthe other companies owned by the fraudulent duo and their Post-Zionistpartner, Burg. Burg did not pony up much or any cash of his own to becomethe partner of Algor and Davis. So what exactly did he offer them?Perhaps his wide-ranging political contacts as the past Speaker of theKnesset?In any case, Pri Hagalil went bust, and is now insolvent. The two largeIsraeli banks that are its largest creditors began preparations toforeclose and liquidate the company. That has serious implicationsbecause it is the lifeline of the large portion of the population ofHatzor. Shutting down the factory would make Hatzor look like Oklahomain a John Steinbeck book.So in the past few weeks, the business news in Israel has been revolvingaround the prospective shutting down of the factory. Its workers arestriking on and off, and holding noisy demonstrations. The banks aredemanding that the court put the company into receivership, and that a"rehabilitation plan" be negotiated. Everyone is pretty clearly trying topressure the government to bail out the company Obama-style. But the newMinister of Finance will likely be Bibi and he is opposed to corporatewelfare. Burg and his buddies are accusing the banks of insensitivity intrying to get repaid the money owed to them by the Pri Hagalil company.The banks themselves are in the red even without writing off theirinvestments in Pri Hagalil, because of the financial crisis and recession.They are accusing Burg of mismanaging the company and its finances.The bottom line is that the mainstay source of sustenance for an entireimpoverished development town in Israel was destroyed under thestewardship of dear old Avraham Burg And then to top it all off, MaarivFeb 25, 09 is reporting that the Israeli banks are accusing Burg of beinginvolved in the disappearance of funds plowed into the factory. Theyclaim they invested 270 million shekels in keeping the factory operationaland that these funds simply "disappeared." Whither did they disappear?The media are not saying and neither is Burg.As of this morning, the court gave the company a brief reprieve beforeputting it into receivership, so that its owners can try to negotiate withits creditors. My guess is that the Israeli government will bail it out,forcing taxpayers to pony up the cash to cover Burg's incompetence.

What can you say about a country that – once again - awarded its mostprestigious prize on its most important day to a radical leftist? Onewho mocked the memory of the Holocaust and poked fun at Israel'sfallen soldiers?It's Israeli Masochism, Stupid!Alon Ben Shaul28/4/2010It all started with an ad titled, "For Jerusalem," which author ElieWiesel, the Nobel Prize laureate, published in the New York Times, theWall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. It addressed PresidentObama and said, inter alia: "For me, the Jew that I am, Jerusalem isabove politics…It is mentioned more thhan six hundred times inScripture - and not a single time in the Koran...the first song Iheard was my mother's lullaby about and for Jerusalem."Wiesel also wrote that Jews, Christians and Muslims were able to buildtheir homes anywhere in Jerusalem and that only under Israelisovereignty had freedom of worship for all religions been assured inthe city. "The anguish over Jerusalem is not about real estate, butabout memory," he stressed.A Leftist group of activists responded to this ad by saying that aslong as Jerusalem remains "occupied" it cannot be holy. "Jerusalemmust be shared by both Israelis and Palestinians," they insisted in anopen letter published after Independence Day. They emphasized thatthey wanted to express their "frustration, even outrage" at Wiesel'sletter, demanding that Jerusalem must be shared by the people of thetwo nations residing in it. "Only a shared city will live up to theprophet's vision: Zion shall be redeemed with justice," their letterproclaimed. (1)The signatories maintained that while their Jerusalem is "concrete,"that of Wiesel is an ideal, an object of prayer. "Our Jerusalem ispopulated with people, young and old, women and men, who wish theircity to be a symbol of dignity - not of hubris, inequality anddiscrimination. You speak of the celestial Jerusalem; we live in theearthly one," the letter said. "For every Jew, you say, a visit toJerusalem is a homecoming, yet it is our commitment that makes yourhomecoming possible. We prefer the hardship of realizing citizenshipin this city to the convenience of merely yearning for it."The signatories culminated their response by appealing to Wiesel tovisit Jerusalem for himself, thus seeing "with your own eyes thecatastrophic effects of the frenzy of construction." The letterreiterated the chant used by Simon-the-Righteous neighborhood (SheikhJarrah) activists in their weekly rallies, demanding that Jews beprohibited from moving into that area: "Nothing can be holy in anoccupied city!" (2)The activists call themselves "Just Jerusalem" and include IsraelPrize laureate professors Avishai Margalit and Zeev Sternhell, as wellas former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg.Avishai Margalit? Yes, the very Hebrew University philosopher who, twodays earlier, had the audacity to accept the Israeli Prize withouteven blinking. For this is the same Margalit who many years earlierbranded Elie Wiesel "Kitschman of Genius" in a scurrilous article, inwhich he described Yad Vashem Holocaust Center as a memorial that "hasbecome an element of state kitsch."

The Jihad of Avraham BurgJoseph Haim Brenner was an early Zionist writer and journalist. Hemoved to the Land of Israel in 1909 at the age of 20. He worked as ateacher, writer and translator. He was murdered by Arab terrorists in theriots of 1921 (after the Balfour Declaration). Givat Brenner, the largestkibbutz in Israel, is named after him.Brenner once challenged the traditional definition of a Jew. The Rabbinicdefinition of a Jew is one who has a Jewish mother (or who converts). Notso, said Brenner. A Jew is not one who has a Jewish mother but rather onewho has Jewish grandchildren.The point he was making, and making it a century ago, was that the realtest of Jewish roots is whether one's grandchildren remain Jewish. Underthat test, outside the Orthodox communities there are very few Jews leftin America.Fast forward to the twentieth century and the Burg family. The late Dr.Yosef Burg was one of the most prominent politicians in Israel. He wasborn in 1909, the same year that Brenner came to the Land of Israel, anddied in 1999. He was a Rabbi and a scholar, holding a PhD in philosophyfrom the University of Leipzig. He served for many years in the Knessetas a representative of the National Religious Party and also was often acabinet minister. He served in so many Knessets that there were jokesabout him (his having first been elected by the slaves to Pharaoh inEgypt, and the like).As committed as Yosef Burg was to building Israel and defending it, so hisson Avraham Burg has long been committed to destroying it. Avraham Burgis a far-leftist who used to be a Knesset member from the Israeli LaborParty, although his views are to the left of Yossi Beilin's. Pretendingto be religious but never too much so, he always wore a yarmulke the sizeof a Canadian quarter. He was active in Peace Now and in fringefar-leftist groups. In 1995, his friends in the Labor Left got himselected to head the Jewish Agency, a bit of a joke given his hostility toZionism. He later served as speaker of the Knesset, although he actuallyrepresented Palestinians there more so than Israelis. As speaker, hedefied Israeli law and illegally went to speak before the PLO's"parliament" in Ramallah in 2002.Since then he has morphed into one of Israel's most extremist"Post-Zionists" (http://www.arabworldbooks.com/arab/avraham.htm ). Hedenounced Zionism in the anti-Israel Guardian(http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,1042071,00.html ). Theanti-Semite Pat Buchanan applauded him(http://goliath.ecnext.com/comsite5/bin/pdinventory.pl?pdlanding=1&referid=2750&item_id=0199-1403773). He denounced Israel as an evil entity(http://www.haaretz.com/GA/pages/ShArtGA.jhtml?itemNo=360539 )The journal Azure reports(http://azure.org.il/magazine/magazine.asp?id=117&search_text= ) thatBurg: 'declared Yeshayahu Leibowitz (of .Judeo-Nazis. fame) to be his.moral compass.. Burg.s advisers Haim Ben-Shachar and Arik Carmon havedeveloped a plan whereby the Zionist movement would drop its focus onJewish immigration and concern itself with distributing .pluralistic.Jewish material over the Internet.' He has teamed up with Yossi Beilin topromote the latter's "Geneva Misunderstandings" to dismember Israel(http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=36&x_article=599 ).This past year the media reported that Burg junior had left Israelaltogether to do "business" in France. But nothing Burg did in the pastprepared anyone for his speech, reported in the press today, essentiallycalling for Israel to be destroyed. Burg demands that Israel desistaltogether from defining itself as a "Jewish state".Since nothing I do to paraphrase or summarize his statements can do themjustice, they are reprinted here in full fromhttp://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/868215.htmlBurg: Defining Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its endBy Ari Shavit, Haaretz Correspondent